concentration camp

noun

: a place where large numbers of people (such as prisoners of war, political prisoners, refugees, or the members of an ethnic or religious minority) are detained or confined under armed guard

—used especially in reference to camps created by the Nazis in World War II for the internment and persecution of Jews and other prisoners

The Nazi soldiers hauled [Mordechai] Strigler off to a concentration camp, and carved swastikas into his cheeks and forehead with a razor blade. Over the next five years, he was sent from one concentration camp or slave-labor camp to another.

—David Remnick

She ended up dying in a concentration camp, just a few months before she would have been liberated.

—Marilyn Reynolds

The V2 killed thousands of British civilians while 20,000 concentration camp inmates died as slave labourers during its manufacture in the closing stages of the second world war.

—Anna Tomforde et al.

see also death camp

Examples of concentration camp in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

To what degree was infamous filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl a Nazi collaborator who knew about Adolf Hitler’s concentration camps? —Addie Morfoot, Variety, 22 Sep. 2025

When women and men speaking Cervantes’ tongue are sent to concentration camps like the South Florida Detention Facility or CECOT, then what use is a sonnet? —Ed Simon september 22, Literary Hub, 22 Sep. 2025

Eight months later, nearly every Jew who was left in Hamburg was deported to concentration camps, including her entire extended family who was murdered, except for one surviving aunt. —Miami Herald, 19 Sep. 2025

World War II concentration camp footage, for instance, has been instrumental in fighting Holocaust denialism. —James Hibberd, HollywoodReporter, 12 Sep. 2025

Word History

First Known Use

1901, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for concentration camp

• amp
• champ
• clamp
• cramp
• damp
• gamp
• lamp
• ramp
• samp
• scamp
• stamp
• tamp

Kids Definition

concentration camp

noun

: a camp where persons (as prisoners of war, political prisoners, or refugees) are detained